The Painter for the Queen
by HerMaJessty
Summary: Gwen and Arthur enjoy their married life while they await the arrival of a painter hired to paint a portrait of the queen. Her beauty is to be captured on the canvas for all of Camelot to see, the news of the portrait reached far and wide, perhaps too far.
1. Chapter 1

She slipped her hand under her pillow, it felt cold, all the space under her pillow was cold.

"Why do you think it's always cold under the pillow?" Gwen asked Arthur, sleep cracking her soft voice ever so slightly. Arthur rolled over and looked at his new bride, smiling the whole time. Then he stopped to consider her question,, a look of pure confusion crossed his face, but only for a second.

"The queen of Camelot should not worry herself with such little things. She should worry about smiling and giving me your opinion on the things I'm doing. I know I'll regret saying that someday." Arthur laughed when he said this. Gwen played along, looking shocked and hurt she picked up her pillow and threw it at him. They weren't far apart, of course, they were on the same bed after all. The pillow hit Arthur right in the face and he smiled at her.

"You've just started a war my queen" he smirked as he picked up his own pillow, aiming it right at Gwen, but making sure not to hit her too hard, making sure that he didn't hurt his queen. They played like this for a few minutes, it exhausted them and made a mess of feathers on the bed that continued onto the floor.

"Merlin's going to be wondering where all these feathers came from" Gwen said, chuckling to herself as she looked around the room. She looked at the floor around the bed and laughed, a full, hearty laugh. She hadn't laughed that way in a long time. When she thought about it, she hadn't really laughed out loud, fully laughed out loud since her father died. It had been too long and she welcomed the laughter with open arms as it came on this fine morning. There was nothing she would rather be doing than sitting in bed with her new husband, Arthur Pendragon and laughing with her whole body about the pillow fight they'd just had.

"Merlin won't mind, he loves cleaning up my chambers" Arthur said while a sly smile crept across his face, "don't you Merlin?" Gwen hadn't even noticed that Merlin was in the room. He looked at them, a little embarrassed to be called out into the open. He was placing their breakfast on the table in their quarters, trying to be quiet as not to disturb the scene he walked in on. He wanted Gwen to be happy, knew she would be with Arthur, but he hadn't heard her laugh for so long, he didn't want his presence to cut it short.

Gwen looked at Merlin, embarrassed herself for the mess that she and Arthur had made of their chambers. She tried to help Merlin clean it up, she kept reminding him that she too used to be a serving girl, that she was quite capable of picking up after herself. Merlin grinned at her and told her that now she was queen and she didn't have to worry about picking up after herself, but warned her playfully not to become like Arthur or he would have to make her pick up after him as well. She laughed at this and let Merlin get on with his work, she and Arthur were to go riding that afternoon and they both needed to be dressed for the occasion.

He pushed the hair out of her eyes, she needed to be able to see, her beautiful eyes must be showing at all times. At least that's what he told her. He was always telling her things, things that made her blush or things that made her smile and look at the floor. Those were the things that he aimed for, he wanted her always smiling, always with a natural blush about her. That's what he loved about her, she was only too ready to dismiss her own beauty, she didn't even realize how beautiful she really was. Sometimes it actually angered Arthur to know that his bride didn't find herself as beautiful as other women. She was the queen of Camelot and still comparing herself to other women.

"Merlin!" he would shout into the empty room. Somewhere a door would open and his serving boy would come in, smiling about whatever he thought Arthur was going to ask him to do. He would let Merlin stand over him while he complained about his wife's inability to see her own beauty, waiting for Merlin to say something, then finally having to ask him to say something, to make some suggestion. He wanted to be able to make Gwen feel beautiful. Merlin would always tell him to just keep telling her, just make sure that she knew that Arthur found her beautiful and that's all that would matter to her. She would smile at all his compliments and it would be a genuine smile. He knew that all this was true but he wanted something more. He wanted to show her that all the things he said about her being the most beautiful woman he'd ever met were true, everything he ever said to her was true. She was the love of his life and he needed another way to show her that. Making her queen simply was not enough.

"I've got a guest coming to the castle tonight" Arthur told Gwen, a smile playing on his lips. She could tell that he was just dying to tell her something but she wasn't going to play along so easily.

"Oh, and who are we welcoming today?" Gwen knew he would have to answer her, but he wanted her to be more curious, this was a guest the he had not told her about until the last minute, it was obviously something he was excited about, something he wanted her to be excited about. She simply could not get excited about these types of things, she was still adjusting into a new life after all. Going from a serving girl to queen of Camelot overnight was a lot for her to take in.

"He's an artist, the best that I could find. He's coming to Camelot to paint a portrait of the most beautiful woman in all of Camelot, perhaps in all the world" Arthur looked amazed at his own speech, he let a portion of a laugh escape his lips, sounding like a breath escaped too fast. Gwen looked at him tentatively, she knew that he was not one that was too impressed by art, he didn't even notice half the art that was already in the castle. Her interest had been peaked.

"Oh? And who might this woman be? Have I met her?" Gwen smiled at Arthur, her question was genuine, she thought about all the women that she'd encountered in Camelot, then thought of Morgana. She hadn't thought of Morgana in quite some time. All the years she'd spent serving Morgana, she couldn't think of a time that Morgana hadn't been beautiful. She couldn't think of a time when her hair didn't fall in just the right way, even when she was ill, she did it beautifully. Panic and worry squeezed her heart tight.

"What is it?" Arthur looked worriedly at Gwen, "I didn't mean to upset you in any way. I was trying to be playful. The painter is coming to pain a portrait of you Gwen." He looked at her, waiting for the panic to leave her eyes completely. He wanted to know what had stirred such an emotion in Gwen. He hadn't seen her like that in ages, since before they were married. He thought about that time, about how much of a struggle it had been for them before his father had passed away, about how much they had been through to get to this very moment, the moment when he was telling his bride that she would have a portrait of herself hanging in the castle somewhere, wherever she wanted it to hang.

"You've gathered all the supplies you need?" her voice was raspy, she hadn't seen the sun in days and was squinting at her guest through the light that was peeking through the dirty windows of her little hut. There was nothing she wouldn't do to see the king fall.

"Morgana, would I ever fail you?" he laughed, then opened the satchel that he'd brought with him. In it he had the supplies he needed for the task he had been called on to complete. He unloaded paint and an array of brushes on the table for Morgana to inspect.

"And what of the poison?" Morgana asked accusingly, making her guest's face twist into a smile filled with malice. Morgana's interest peaked, she waited for him to elaborate, to reveal the plan that he'd formulated, the only instruction she'd given him was to make sure that the queen was dead. She needed no successor to the throne when she finally took Arthur down.


	2. Chapter 2

"Have you really even thought about this properly?" Merlin asked Arthur, completely out of line for anyone else. Merlin talked to Arthur this way all the time, questioning his actions and giving him advice as though he were part of the council. In fact, Merlin was one of the most valuable council members to Arthur, even though he wasn't really on the council. He listened to Merlin like he didn't listen to others. It's like he could sense that Merlin really did have his best interests at heart, he'd never done anything to make him think otherwise, so many other people had. It made him seem trustworthy, he was the most trustworthy person Arthur knew within the castle walls. Even Gwen had made an attempt on his life (though she wasn't herself and he accepted that). Merlin was still talking, still trying to talk Arthur out of getting the portrait painted.

"So many things have happened in the past few months, do you really think that doing something like this is a good idea, _now_?" Merlin was practically begging Arthur not to get the portrait painted now. He'd already told Gwen about it though and her smile had been so genuine when they talked about it the second time, when she'd become more accustomed to the idea. She would never really be completely alright with it, Arthur knew that, but that she was letting him do this for her at all was something big for him. It was almost a milestone in their relationship. Him doing something really beautiful for her, him being able to finally show his affections for her and not have to worry about what anyone else thought, he was the king after all.

"Yes Merlin. I have thought about the consequences and what would happen if the wrong people heard about it. The guards have been doubled and everyone has been warned to look out for impending danger. I'd like to believe that just this once I could do something for someone I love and not have to worry about someone dying." Merlin knew he was being honest. Arthur didn't talk like this a lot but when he did, Merlin knew the conversation was over. You could only get so much emotion out of Arthur at one sitting. It was like he though you would overfill yourself, so he stopped while he was ahead. It never was enough though, Merlin always tried to push, tried to get him to say more about whatever it was they were talking about. Not this time though, this time was different. He knew there was no way that he would get Arthur to change his mind about the painting. He would just have to keep his eye out for trouble too. He just hoped that this didn't mean exposing his magic.

"I really don't know how I feel about all this. I've never felt the way that I do with Arthur, I mean that's why I married him, I love him. I just don't know, he wants to do this for me and I know it means a lot to him but it seems like too much. I'm not even really sure the people have accepted me yet, or if they ever will. I was just like them, just like you not even a year ago." Gwen was talking to her new servant girl. She'd tried to talk Arthur out of it, but he insisted that she have someone, he had Merlin and so she should have someone too. He told her that he bounced ideas off of Merlin sometimes, between bouncing his armour and his laundry off him of course. Merlin actually helped to choose Gwen's servant girl, he needed to know that it was someone they could trust and so he held interviews of a sort. He enchanted each and every girl who wanted the job, the enchantment was one to force the girl to tell the truth no matter what. He would ask them about their intentions and whether they were a trustworthy person for the job. Once he thought he'd found the perfect one he'd taken her straight to Gwen and told her "She's perfect, she will serve you well Gwen." Gwen remembered all this perfectly, she was grateful to Merlin for helping to find the perfect girl, even though she didn't know quite how much he'd done in the process. No one did, not even Gaius.

"Do you think it's too much?" Gwen was still the only one talking, "Are you feeling alright? You haven't said a word all morning." She began to look concerned, wondering if the work load was too much. She'd tried to help the poor girl out but she had just been shooed away or told that she was insulting the girl by trying to help her with what she should be able to do on her own. Gwen still helped her, whether the girl knew or not, Gwen did not know, she kept little jobs that a servant girl would normally do and she did them herself when she was alone. It helped her to feel grounded, to remember who she used to be, to remember who she still was. She needed to remember her roots to remain the person she needed to be. She knew that the person she used to be would never allow for such a thing to be done, a giant portrait to be painted and hung in the castle. It was all just too much. Her former self would have shrunk away from such a thing, saying just that, that it was _too much_. She just didn't know how to tell Arthur that, she didn't want to see that look of defeat on his face. He'd been trying to find something to make her feel special for a long time and everything he tried seemed to fail, she didn't want this to be just another attempt. Before the young girl got a chance to speak Gwen had made up her mind, she was going to go through with the painting, she was going to do it for Arthur and she would deal with the consequences if there were any that came along with it.

"You haven't really given me a chance my lady" the young girl said, a smile on her lips. She thought it was funny when Gwen was in one of her moods. She would just talk and talk with no space for anyone else to say anything. Sometimes she wondered if she did this with the king too, if he had to fight to get a word in edgewise. She hoped that if the king did have to fight to get a word in edgewise, that he thought it just as amusing as she did.

"It should be me you know" Morgana was pinning up her hair, looking at herself in a looking glass, striking different poses. "It should be me that has a painting of herself on those castle walls."

"Of course my lady, your beauty will grace those castle walls soon enough" the painter's gravelly voice suited his dark mind and intentions. Morgana smiled at herself in the looking glass, pulling her hair over her left shoulder. The painter laughed, a full bellied laugh, pulling half of her hair over her right shoulder and straightening out her shoulders. "This, this is how a queen should pose for a painting."


End file.
